Earthquake measuring 4.4 points on the Richter scale rocked the Kamchatka Peninsula in the area of the Tilichiki and Korf settlements. There have been no casualties or destruction, Russian Emergency Situations Ministry's main department for the Kamchatka territory told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

The earth tremor was registered at 04:35, local time, Tuesday (19:35, Moscow time on March 31). The epicentre was located some 35 kilometres north of Tilichiki and Korf. There is another populated locality - Khailino - near the earthquake epicentre. It is located 45 kilometres from it.

According to rescuers, the earthquake occurred roughly in the same area where a strong earthquake took place in April 2006 causing destruction. The magnitude of the earth tremor then reached 7.9 points on the Richter scale. About 1,200 people were evacuated from the calamity zone. Due to aftershocks over 160 apartment houses in Korf, Tilichiki and Khailino became unfit for dwelling as they were damaged beyond repair. Over 700 state housing certificates giving the right to their holders to acquire housing in any region of the country were provided to families that lost homes.

The Koryakia district in the north of the Kamchatka region has five towns and 25 villages. About 30,000 people live in the north-eastern Russian region, making it one of the country's most thinly populated areas.

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.